Memória, trauma e violência na escrita testemunhal em A vida e a luta de uma sobrevivente do holocausto, de Sabina Kustin

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze, in the novel The Life and Struggle of a Holocaust Survivor (2012), by the Jewish author Sabina Kustin, the traumatic memory and violence present in testimonial writing, pointing out characteristics that also classify it as a narrative of filiation. Among the many questions raised, we chose some guiding questions for this study, namely: Why did the main character of the novel develop deep marks of melancholy such as grief, pain and trauma? What subjective marks and biographemes prove that this work belongs to the genre of self-writing, characterizing it as an autofictional text? Is it possible to prove that The Life and Struggle of a Holocaust Survivor is a Narrative of filiation and Testimony Writing at the same time? Through a qualitative methodology and a literature review, we address, from the referred work, questions about autobiography and written genre of self, narrative of filiation, individual memory and collective memory, violence and trauma in the narrative. In order to achieve our objectives regarding the researched theme, we rely mainly on Lejeune (2008), in the discussions about what is autobiographical writing; in Assmann (2011), Halbwachs (2013), Pollak (1989, 1992) and Ricoeur (2007), to define individual memory and collective memory; in Figueiredo (2010), Noronha (2014) and Viart (2008), with regard to the narrative of filiation; and in Seligmann-Silva (1998, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010), regarding the traumatic narrative and testimony; in addition to the existing critical fortune about our object of study and the research problems pointed out in this work. The Life and Struggle of a Holocaust Survivor (2012) brings debates that even today lead the reader to make a critical reflection on one of the most terrible facts of humanity. The results of the research point to a text in which the main character still bears the marks of the profound violence of the war, of the anti-Semitic persecutions, of all kinds of violence to which the Jews, and other marginalized portions of society, such as blacks, homosexuals and gypsies, were victims.